Why has the Lower Mainland’s annual celebration of Punjabi culture, City of Bhangra, adopted “#bhangralove” as its 10th-anniversary slogan and Twitter handle?

Well, according to the event’s director, Mo Dhaliwal, bhangra provides the pulse that keeps the festival moving forward, but love is at its core.

“When you strip away all the government policy and everything else, multiculturalism is an act of love,” he told the Straight in a telephone interview. “It’s a choice to live in a state of openness, generosity, and harmony.”

India’s Punjab region has always been diverse, Dhaliwal noted. “There’s Punjabi Sikhs, Punjabi Hindus, Punjabi Muslims, Punjabi Christians. That area has been a nexus for different cultures and different ethnic communities to meet for eons. So I guess in our campaign theme for #bhangralove this year, it’s not that we’re presenting a massive ground shift in our programming or in our approach. Rather, I think we’re just bringing some of the values that we’ve always held to the forefront a little bit more.”

The festival’s opening gala, Transfusion—at SFU Woodward’s on Thursday (May 29)—is a good example of that openhearted approach. Among the participants will be First Nations hoop-dance troupe Native Thunder and Coquitlam’s hip-hop–oriented Now or Never Crew—not just performing, but sharing dance moves and musical motifs with the event’s South Asian participants, in what Dhaliwal calls “ a really meaningful and deeper, more integrated” form of cultural crossover.

For more information, and a complete event schedule, visit vibc.org/festival-info/.